Western Federation of Miners

development of trade unions

...was a western brand of working-class radicalism forged by a decade of industrial war in the western mining states. The two groups proved incompatible, and the IWW, dominated by radicals from the Western Federation of Miners, drove out the socialists and committed itself to a syndicalist version of class war, in which political action was excluded. Struggle would centre on direct industrial...

history of the Industrial Workers of the World

Among the founders of the IWW were William D. (“Big Bill”) Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party, and Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party. Debs withdrew his support as the group grew more radical.